One could even eliminate the heavy and potential dangerous battery with some sort of overhead wire or rail contact. And since the cars can only move in one direction within a tunnel, one could eliminate the need for steering by placing them on a set of rails. And maybe use some sort of automatic control system to make sure the train stops when needed. Wait..

Yeah it's like you take a perfectly good argument "we should be able to make tunnels more efficiently" and then throw in Tesla fan-boyism and it just shuts off the critical thinking centers of the brain.

While I agree your argument sounds good and probably works for many cases, the fact is that I would use the system described in the Tesla scenario and I would never ride a subway in a place like Texas or Los Angeles.

Public transport is absolutely gross and legitimately scary in Los Angeles. However, if I could stay in my car I would totally use this system, also having your car at your destination is incredibly useful and not something you can do with a subway.

IMO they both serve different needs.

Just make sure to update your rail cars once in a while so you don't end up with old pieces of shit that lose power every few km and give you tinnitus when traveling underground. Like some German cities.

Tunnels are hard because of fire risk, not just because of exhausts and electric vehicles simplify the one but complicate the other.

Just like software never crashes?

I'm not aware of any examples where car software 'crashed', in any vehicle, causing the vehicle itself to physically crash.

And if you're talking about FSD, most of those instances are from exceptions eg. unexpected pedestrian, parked truck, construction works.

Its fair to imagine that these tunnels will be custom-built for self-driving cars and will be totally controlled environments.

It's just a matter of time as systems become more dependent on it.

> I'm not aware of any examples where car software 'crashed', in any vehicle, causing the vehicle itself to physically crash.

Toyota runaway acceleration caused by a stack overflow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%932011_Toyota_vehic...

"On February 8, 2011, the NHTSA, in collaboration with NASA, released its findings into the investigation on the Toyota drive-by-wire throttle system. After a 10-month search, NASA and NHTSA scientists found no electronic defect in Toyota vehicles.

Driver error or pedal misapplication was found responsible for most of the incidents. The report ended stating, "Our conclusion is Toyota's problems were mechanical, not electrical." This included sticking accelerator pedals, and pedals caught under floor mats."